Sir,





My name is Ramachandran and I am writing to you from Chennai, India. I intend to purchase a set of DVDs from you and I seek your advice on the same. My friend is traveIing to the US next week.He will be able to pick it up for me and get it back home. Mail service is not trustworthy here in India and I do not want to risk international shipping.



I have three puppies.

two males, a one and a half month old doberman and a three plus month old Chippiparai.

The female is a two and half month old Rajapalayam.



I read your article about what a bad idea it is to have that many a bit too late. I am planning to give the Chippiparai male puppy away. I will then be left with two.



I have already started obedience for all the three and also enforce discipline during feeding time. Please check out these links if you have the time and the inclination.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuvXmr6k4M4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYlPEomfpm4



I wish to train my dogs in way that is more than just some parlour tricks they perform for food.. I can already teach simple behavious like Sitz, Platz, Shtay, Blieb etc. and make them do all that for a treat. But I want to make sure that my dogs are rock solid in obedience and they perform due to loyalty and not for food. That requires getting inside their heads. Kindly suggest to me the DVDs I will need to achieve this.



Also, it would be great if you have some DVDs that can teach some basic protection/guarding like barking at strangers at the fence/gate. Raising an alarm if a stranger has entered the house by barking. Being aloof to strangers. Biting someone if they hit me/on command and release on command. Luckly, the two dogs I intend to keep already seem to have good guarding instincts and they alarm bark when seeing strangers near the fence.



I know that it will take a long time to train the dogs , but I am willing to put in the time and the effort. I already own 2 prong collars (Herm sprenger). There are no dog training places in India where they teach a dog to be obedient, except for the army. There are a lot of people who will teach a dog to work for a treat, but I can do that myself. I need to take it to the next level and be able to trust the dog to obey me.



If you can suggest a set of DVDs for me, I can order them and get them shipped to his US address and he will carry it for me, back to India.



Thanks for your time.





Regards



Ramachandran

 Quote: Ramachandran Subramanian

.... I want to make sure that my dogs are rock solid in obedience and they perform due to loyalty and not for food. .... Kindly suggest to me the DVDs I will need to achieve this. .... Also, it would be great if you have some DVDs that can teach some basic protection/guarding like barking at strangers at the fence/gate. Raising an alarm if a stranger has entered the house by barking. Being aloof to strangers. Biting someone if they hit me/on command and release on command. ....

There is so much to address here that this is probably why no one has replied yet.

Just to start with the obedience-training: Have you heard of marker training?

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

There is so much to address here that this is probably why no one has replied yet.

Just to start with the obedience-training: Have you heard of marker training?

sorry connie, not to be a smartass, but if you watch the video's, he is doing some marker training.

Ramachandran: Leerburg video's are not sold in stores, so unless your cousin was planning on going to Leerburg to pick them up (which i don't think you can do) you would be out of luck.
Unless you place an order and have them sent to someone you know in that states, and then your cousin could pick them up from them.

I would suggest
http://leerburg.com/120.htm (Your puppy 8 weeks to 8 Months)
http://leerburg.com/219.htm (Power of training dogs with markers)
http://leerburg.com/308.htm (Establishing Pack Structure)

As for the protection part of your question, i will leave that up to other member of this board.

Even though it looks like you are already marker training, i would get the video anyway...it will reveal a whole new level you can attain by using marker training correctly.

Yes. I have already started obedience and I use clicker training. My eldest pup can do sit, platz, stand, shake hands, speak and take a bow. My youngest can do sit and platz.

I also enforce strict discipline during feeding time. Please see some of the videos I have posted in the videos thread.


I plan to order it over th internet with my credit card from leerburg.com and then get it shipped over to my friend's address in the US. That is what I was planning to do.

Would the video "power of playing tug" help me use play as a reward rather than food. I inted to take my doberman with me into the real world to the market, post office, bank etc and would like to reward him when he is obedient. I think a small tug would be a better reward for me to carry than food.

I would try incorporate both food and tug into training as they both have advantages in particular situations.

I would get the food training and marker training DVDs as they will teach the most effective way to use those training methods.

Just because you train your dog with food doesn't mean they will always need food. After your dog understands what you want, you start phasing the food out and randomly rewarding. This is covered in the DVDs too, I believe.

 Quote: wendy lefebvre

sorry connie, not to be a smartass, but if you watch the video's, he is doing some marker training.

I didn't. Wanting to ensure that "... they perform due to loyalty and not for food" threw me off and led me to think that marker training was not yet in the equation.

 Quote: Mara Jessup

I would try incorporate both food and tug into training as they both have advantages in particular situations.

I would get the food training and marker training DVDs as they will teach the most effective way to use those training methods.

Just because you train your dog with food doesn't mean they will always need food. After your dog understands what you want, you start phasing the food out and randomly rewarding. This is covered in the DVDs too, I believe.

Nicely put.

 Quote: connie sutherland

I didn't. Wanting to ensure that "... they perform due to loyalty and not for food" threw me off and led me to think that marker training was not yet in the equation.

Maybe off topic, but I work for food.

I work in a family business so loyalty is important, but if I ain't eatin' I'm looking for work elsewhere.

But I understand what the OP means. There is a fine line between reward and bribe.

Yes, reward, lure, and bribe are all different and have different functions.



(In general, and not directed to the O.P., I think maybe lots of beginner marker trainers accidentally turn rewards into bribes. )

Quote: I inted to take my doberman with me into the real world to the market, post office, bank etc and would like to reward him when he is obedient. I think a small tug would be a better reward for me to carry than food.


When we were living in foreign countries there were far more street dogs, which meant if we took our dogs into the markets, they really needed to be desensitized to the dogs hanging around, also these dogs looked for the people with treats! I don’t know if this is an issue where you are, if it is, could carrying and rewarding your dog with food gain you many new friends?